Padres fans demand TV coverage at Petco rally

“The mayor should sit down with them and say get it done,” Filner said. “We shouldn’t wait. We should be doing it now. We should sit down with them in private meetings. But I will commit that if that’s not solved by the time I’m mayor, that we will have the public meetings and put them on the spot to explain why a major-league city and a major-league team do not have major-league coverage.”

The crowd liked that, but reserved its biggest applause for another familiar face — Harry “The Heckler” Maker, one of the Padres’ longest-suffering and loudest fans.

“How many people here saw that Lexus drive on the field when the Rangers were here, and again on Friday?” he bellowed. “I called the Padres, and I complained about that. I said, ‘I came to a ball game, not a car show.’ I called them up. I said, ‘Why are you doing that?’

“They told me, ‘We needed the revenue stream.’ Revenue stream? Forty-two percent of this county can’t see you on TV. What about all the commercials you just blew off? You want a revenue stream, get with it. Get with corporate America. They know how to make a couple of bucks. Put your product out there where people can see it.”

The unknowns among us stirred emotions and the pot pretty well, too. It’ll be their words, more than mine, that’ll move these TV execs.

“I’m thinking about the handicapped people out here,” one protester said. “They count on these games to give them a couple hours’ worth of rest and relaxation away from the pains of their lives. (The TV companies) have robbed these people.”

“The Padres are ruining my summer,” a teenage boy added. “I can’t watch any Padres game on TV, and I can’t go to every Padres game. So instead of watching my favorite team play, I have to think of something to do. It kind of sucks.”

“I was at UCLA in 1971,” another fan said. “Bill Walton was in my history class, and we walked across the San Diego Freeway to shut it down, and we ended the war in Vietnam at some point. We can do this.”

I believe. Let’s keep the pressure on. Let’s all stand up so we can all sit down and watch some baseball.